The YRBSS monitors six health-risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth. The 2013 school-based surveys were conducted by CDC, state, territory, and local education and health agencies. The results are representative of high school and middle school students in public and private schools in the United States.

“The survey is an important tool for understanding how health risk behaviors among youth vary across the nation and over time,” said Laura Kann, Ph.D., chief of the division’s School-Based Surveillance Branch. “These data can help schools, communities, families, and students reduce youth risk behaviors that are still prevalent and to monitor newly emerging behaviors.”

The percentage of high school students nationwide who had been in a physical fight at least once during the past 12 months decreased from 42 percent in 1991 to 25 percent in 2013.Learn more about youth violence and school climate.

The percentage of high school students using a computer three or more hours per day for non-school related work nearly doubled from 22 to 41 percent from 2003−2013.

The survey analyzes urban and statewide trends for participating states, showing significant differences in risk behavior. National trends in youth risk behaviors are also available regarding alcohol use, illegal drug use, and sexual, suicide-related, injury-related, and violence-related behaviors, among other topics, from 1991 through 2013.

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